1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to portable device communications, and more particularly to a portable communications framework.
2. Background Art
Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) was developed as an extension to Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) and is directed particularly to digital cameras, portable media players, and cellular phones.
One purpose of MTP is to facilitate communication with media devices that have transient connectivity and significant storage capacity. These media devices can be generally described as having intermittent or infrequent connections with a computer system or other device, and typically fulfill their primary functionality while not connected to a computer system or other device.
Another purpose of MTP is to enable command and control of these media devices, including remote invocation of device functionality, monitoring of device-initiated events, and reading/setting of device properties.
MTP is transport protocol independent. In other words, MTP objects can be transported within virtually any transport protocol, including USB (Universal Serial Bus), TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), and Bluetooth, for example. MTP is also operating system and file system independent. However, conventional MTP frameworks are typically designed for specific transport, operating system, and file system configurations.
There is a need therefore for a portable MTP framework which is decoupled from the specific details of the device transport, platform, and storage systems, thereby being usable in a variety of portable devices irrespective of the supported device transport, platform, and storage.